IMR Press / FBS / Volume 3 / Issue 1 / DOI: 10.2741/S153

Frontiers in Bioscience-Scholar (FBS) is published by IMR Press from Volume 13 Issue 1 (2021). Previous articles were published by another publisher on a subscription basis, and they are hosted by IMR Press on imrpress.com as a courtesy and upon agreement with Frontiers in Bioscience.

Article
Cognition, dopamine and bioactive lipids in schizophrenia
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1 Department of Psychiatry and Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, 3811 O’Hara Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15213,U.S.A.
2 VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System,7180 Highland Drive, Pittsburgh, PA 15206
3 Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy, Pittsburgh, PA 15213

*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

 

Front. Biosci. (Schol Ed) 2011, 3(1), 298–330; https://doi.org/10.2741/S153
Published: 1 January 2011
Abstract

Schizophrenia is a remarkably complex disorder with a multitude of behavioral and biological perturbations. Cognitive deficits are a core feature of this disorder, and involve abnormalities across multiple domains, including memory, attention, and perception. The complexity of this debilitating illness has led to a view that the key to unraveling its pathophysiology lies in deconstructing the clinically-defined syndrome into pathophysiologically distinct intermediate phenotypes. Accumulating evidence suggests that one of these intermediate phenotypes may involve phospholipid signaling abnormalities, particularly in relation to arachidonic acid (AA). Our data show relationships between levels of AA and performance on tests of cognition for schizophrenia patients, with defects in AA signaling associated with deficits in cognition. Moreover, dopamine may moderate these relationships between AA and cognition. Taken together, cognitive deficits, dopaminergic neurotransmission, and bioactive lipids have emerged as related features of schizophrenia. Existing treatment options for cognitive deficits in schizophrenia do not specifically target lipid-derived signaling pathways; understanding these processes could inform efforts to identify novel targets for treatment innovation.

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